And why do white people co-opt irrelevant asian cultural elements in Buddhist communities?

Just keep breathing in and out like this. Don't be interested in anything else. It doesn't matter even if someone is standing on their head with their ass in the air. Don't pay it any attention. Just stay with the in-breath and the out-breath. Concentrate your awareness on the breath. Just keep doing it. http://www.ajahnchah.org/book/Just_Do_It_1_2.php

And compare that to the noble silence of sitting meditation, the very quiet and solemn practice we do in sitting meditation, walking meditation, retreats, even the way we eat our food!

However, socio-economic class also has a lot to do with it and as more African-Americans come out of poverty, there will be greater participation. I have met several African-American Buddhists, but admittedly most have been middle to upper-middle class.

David N. Snyder,Indeed you have already innumerated many of them, "the noble silence of sitting meditation, the very quiet and solemn practice we do in sitting meditation, walking meditation, retreats, even the way we eat our food!"chownah

Is Western Buddhism White? wrote:As I have made the point before, most Western Buddhists are of Asian heritage. We comprise the majority of Western Buddhism. If you’re talking about white Buddhists (and Lander writes about Americans in particular), then you certainly aren’t talking about most Western Buddhists.

chownah wrote:Indeed you have already innumerated many of them, "the noble silence of sitting meditation, the very quiet and solemn practice we do in sitting meditation, walking meditation, retreats, even the way we eat our food!"

Is Western Buddhism White? wrote:As I have made the point before, most Western Buddhists are of Asian heritage. We comprise the majority of Western Buddhism. If you’re talking about white Buddhists (and Lander writes about Americans in particular), then you certainly aren’t talking about most Western Buddhists.

I agree. The vast majority of western Buddhists, are, in fact, Asian.

“No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.” - Cormac McCarthy, The Road

Learn this from the waters:in mountain clefts and chasms,loud gush the streamlets,but great rivers flow silently.- Sutta Nipata 3.725

chownah wrote:Indeed you have already innumerated many of them, "the noble silence of sitting meditation, the very quiet and solemn practice we do in sitting meditation, walking meditation, retreats, even the way we eat our food!"

chownah wrote:Indeed you have already innumerated many of them, "the noble silence of sitting meditation, the very quiet and solemn practice we do in sitting meditation, walking meditation, retreats, even the way we eat our food!"

Ben wrote:I agree. The vast majority of western Buddhists, are, in fact, Asian.

This is true.

Perhaps a better question would be "Why are most western Buddhist meditators white?"

"Proper effort is not the effort to make something particular happen. It is the effort to be aware and awake each moment." - Ajahn Chah"When we see beyond self, we no longer cling to happiness. When we stop clinging, we can begin to be happy." - Ajahn Chah"Know and watch your heart. It’s pure but emotions come to colour it." — Ajahn Chah

pilgrim wrote:OK, why do western sangha call their white teachers by the Thai word Ajahn? Why not use the original Pali Acariya?

Okay, that's probably fair enough. That could be considered an irrelevant Asian custom carried over if the participants are all non-Asian in the U.S. for example. They could be called 'teacher' or 'bhante' or 'acariya' but I imagine those monks were ordained in a Thai tradition and it is simply used out of respect for the tradition they hail from.

pilgrim wrote:OK, why do western sangha call their white teachers by the Thai word Ajahn? Why not use the original Pali Acariya?

Maybe because those white teachers were ordained in the Thai tradition? White monks ordained in the Burmese tradition may be called "Ashin", for example Ashin Ottama. Although that isn't always so, for example in the case of Bhikkhu Pesala.

Then there are monks like Venerable Amarantho who is technically a samanera and has been for over ten years. But he prefers being called by his monastic name, Amarantho, without any prefixes or suffixes.

Ajahn Sujato once said that sometimes his fellow Australians call him "mate".

If you're not sure how to address a monk, "Venerable" seems a pretty safe choice.

Ben wrote:I agree. The vast majority of western Buddhists, are, in fact, Asian.

That hasn't been my experience in the UK, Ben. Buddhism here seems to be predominantly a white, middle-class interest.

Do you think that is because it is just the Buddhism that you have been exposed to is mainly a white, middle-class interest? My comment above is that the vast majority of western Buddhists are in fact Asian - and living in Asia.Kind regards,Ben

“No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.” - Cormac McCarthy, The Road

Learn this from the waters:in mountain clefts and chasms,loud gush the streamlets,but great rivers flow silently.- Sutta Nipata 3.725

Ben wrote:Do you think that is because it is just the Buddhism that you have been exposed to is mainly a white, middle-class interest? My comment above is that the vast majority of western Buddhists are in fact Asian - and living in Asia.Kind regards,Ben

I assumed we were talking about Buddhists in western countries like Europe and North America. I can only really speak about the UK from first-hand experience.

"I ride tandem with the random, Things don't run the way I planned them, In the humdrum."Peter Gabriel lyric